Road Show for the Discovered Small Fields Bid Round 2016 Launched in Mumbai
by Suman Gupta
Mumbai | June 6, 2016: Union Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Mr.
Dharmendra Pradhan today launched the first Road Show for the Discovered
Small Fields Bid Round 2016, with a promise of a transparent regime and
greater ease of doing business. Speaking at a well attended event in Mumbai,
Mr. Pradhan said the current Discovered Small Fields Bid Round 2016, as
also the recently announced Hydrocarbon Exploration and Licensing Policy(HELP),
were both significant improvements over the previous NELP regime. "The
spirit behind the journey from NELP to HELP is to create administrative and
fiscal systems which are a lot simpler and transparent" he added.
As part of the Discovered Small Field Bid Round
2016, 67 different small fields across 9 sedimentary basins are being
offered through auction. These blocks were originally discovered by ONGC
and Oil India Ltd, but could not be developed due to various reasons. The
67 blocks on offer are present in 46 contract areas with 625 million barrels of
oil and oil equivalent gas of in-place reserves spread over 1,500 square kms in
on-land, shallow water and deepwater areas.
The Petroleum Minister further said the bid round aims to boost
the oil and gas production in the country and is in line with Prime Minister
Modi's mission of reducing India’s energy import dependence by 2022.
"We realised that without addressing the fundamental challenges facing our
domestic E&P industry, we won’t be able to ramp up the domestic oil and gas
production volumes. We are also convinced that a simplified and transparent
administrative and regulatory setup has a huge role in fast-tracking
developmental activities in hydrocarbon sector" Mr. Pradhan added.
India meets 70 per cent of its oil and gas consumption through
imports. Out of its total demand or 226 million tons, only 70 million tons is
produced domestically. This is evident from the fact that out of the total oil
and gas consumption of 226 Million Metric Tonnes, only 70 Million Metric Tonnes
is produced domestically.
"Given India’s nearly 78% dependence on energy imports, I
strongly believe that all quantities of hydrocarbon - big or small - are
crucial for the country. And therefore, we feel that this new bid round is a
timely step in the right direction" Mr. Pradhan said.
Some of the key features of the new policy include no
upfront signature bonus, freedom in pricing, no oil cess, custom duty exemption
and graded royalty rates. Investors will access information dockets through the
e-bidding gateway. Also, Physical Data Centers with Interpretation
Facility would be set up in the DGH office and other international locations
where prospective bidders can access the data.
Post the completion of the event, the Minister and his
delegation of senior dignitaries comprising Secretary. Petroleum & Natural
Gas, Mr. K D Tripathi, Additional Secretary, Mr. A P Sawhney and DG
Hydrocarbons Mr. Atanu Chakraborty interacted with some of India’s
prominent business leaders, start-up firms looking for venturing in to the Oil
and Gas sector among others to scout for new business associations for the
project and invited them to come and invest in the fields.
The Bidding process
will start on 15th July 2016 and will end on 31st October
2016. After Mumbai, domestic road shows will be held in Bangalore and
Guwahati while international road shows will be conducted in London,
Houston, Calgary (Canada), Dubai, Singapore and Perth.
Comments
Post a Comment